For anyone hoping to get "Game of Thrones" without the HBO price tag, it may feel like you've won every battle, but are losing the war. Despite high consumer demand and the piracy rate of its content, HBO is not planning to offer its streaming service to non-pay-TV subscribers in the near future.

Speaking at the Nomura Media & Telecommunications Summit in New York Thursday, HBO CEO Richard Plepler noted that the premium cable channel's goal is to up its subscriber numbers, not broaden its streaming service.

“For right now, we have the right model for our business,” Plepler said. “There are 70 million homes in the U.S. that don’t have HBO. We think there’s a lot of opportunity in that 70 million.”

Currently, HBO Go is available on mobile and web devices, but can only be accessed by the channel's pay-TV subscribers. HBO has made its app available to users in Nordic regions without purchasing the cable package, but the rest of the world will have to wait until the shows hit DVD. Shows such as "Girls" and "Game of Thrones" have become popular pirated downloads which makes some wonder if HBO would be more profitable if it just allowed users to easily download the shows legally for a fee.

“For us, exclusivity is all,” Plepler said. “HBO Go, which has our entire library, is something we look to monetize more going forward.”

“It’s very early days, but it’s going very well,” he said. “It’s a classic example of being ambidextrous.”

Gina Hall is a Los Angeles-based writer and producer with more than 10 years experience in television, documentary and feature film production. She is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and blogs for the Huffington Post at huffingtonpost.com/gina-hall

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